HellMOO is a post-apocalyptic hellscape role-playing game.
It is a very challenging role-playing environment. Imagine a
city filled with people who have nothing to lose,
most of whom would murder you given the chance.
Now imagine that they're starving, irradiated, and angry.
Add to that hideous, unthinkable abominations that are
the product of irresponsible genetics research and
generations of radiation poisoning and pollution. Now
imagine that multinational corporations are the only
organizations cuthroat enough to have come out of
the collapse of civilization with any real collective
power, and that there are now no restrictions on them
using that power however they like.
There are so many ways to die here, and thanks to the
corp's technology, you can keep coming back and
experience each and every one of them.
Not even suicide can get you out of hell.

Complex game, but not one that should be played by highly sensitive
people, or survivors of sexual assault. It will be quite triggering,
as rape and pedophilia are ever present.

I appreciate that this game is an outlet for the shadow selves of
some players, and maybe helps prevent immoral things from taking place
in the real world. In that aspect, it's doing a service to the world.
The MUD's code is pretty interesting.

Hellmoo is an incredible experience. If anybody has ever told you
that a game is like a second life to them, that is a step below Hell.
it is your whole life. Dying feels real, having your bike stolen there
sucks more than it does IRL. The people you meet are amazing and
quickly become your closest friends or your worst nightmare. The
learning curve is steep and ANYTHING you learn is a tool because
knowledge is power there. There are many players who have been here
for over a decade but here is the fun part. The whole game is wiping
tomorrow. It has been some six or more years since it last happened
but on March 12th 2016... everyone is going to be erased in a carnival
of murder and we will all be on the same footing. It is going to be
chaotic and glorious and you simply have to get in on it ground level.
There is no experience like it and we likely wont see another wipe for
years to come. Come to Hellmoo, and for Christ sake. Read the wiki:
http://hellmoo.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page : because this game is so
complex and wonderful that you won't know what hit ya.

First of all, if you're under 18 this mud is not for you. Move on to
the next review.

HellMOO is a very detailed and in depth mud. I haven't been so
addicted to a mud in years. Why isn't it highly ranked you ask?
Because, no one can tear themselves away long enough to vote much less
write a review.

I'm not even sure why I tried this mud. The description is enough to
scare most anyone away, and it takes place after a world-wide
collapse, and I'm a fantasy fan. But from the first room, starting
out as a young orphan in an orphanage, I was hooked. And it only got
better.

What's more, I'm usually a Diku or LP mud type player, and all the
MOO's I have checked out over the years have been crap. But not this
one. It came as a total surprise.

So what's it got. First, the depth and detail of every little thing,
from rooms, to every object you will find, to the areas (and it's
huge, massive), to the npc's you encounter and interact with, to the
coding of jobs and professions. It is quite amazing how much work has
been put into it. From exotic weapons of all sorts and abilities to
flying-cars that you not only build, for example, but pilot (the
crafting system is the most in-depth and impressive one I have ever
known.) The list it too much to go into for this review.

The use of colors is also good and pleasing to the eye. Generally
there are always at least thirty or more people on. Despite the
anything-goes-and-can-happen world, most everyone is polite and
helpful, entertaining and interesting. I've never had a problem.
That's not to say it can't happen, the world is now a dangerous
place and care must be taken not only with npc's but also with
players you encounter. I've never even seen an immortal/admin/god.
They must all be too busy building and churning out more amazing
stuff, as the player-world seems to run of itself.

I recommend joining a corp when you've come out of the bomb shelter
at 12 years old. There is so much to learn and explore that you're
going to want to be able to ask others for knowledge and sometimes
assistance. This mud completely engages the player, draws them in and
has them live a second life of danger, romance, friendships, adventure
and moral exploration. It will take you years to know it all, much
less try it all.

Since 'report listing problems' doesn't let you report what the
problem actually *is*, I'll use this review to say that HellMOO
closed to the public on 8 April 2011 according to their
administration's post at http://hellmoo.org/. If you didn't try
it, you (sadly) missed out.

Hi, Actually hell is back up. Check http://hellmoo.org
for more information.

They took out pvp in the new edition but there is another version with
pvp for those who liked it. Visit the site for more.

Comment posted on Sun Feb 5 13:48:35 2012 by grunthawg:

Hell was reopened to players shortly afterwards and is still
available, except on SOPA protest day when we observe a blackout in
protest.

Review posted by XenoDragon

Posted on Tue Mar 15 19:34:40 2011 / 2 comments

Display Review

To review hellmoo, is alot like reviewing a porno; No matter how you
look at it someone is going to be offended and no child (or for that
matter, anyone with emotions) should ever be present.

The PvE aspect of hellmoo is extremely fun and addictive, especially
mutating your character to shape it in unique ways that alter how
you've been playing up till that point. The 'jobs' (see:quests) are
pretty unique, ranging from selling drugs to crackheads to
administering medical care to patients in a hospital and
corps(See:guilds, they love it when you call them guilds) can accept
contracts to perform other jobs or kill objectives.

With that being said, hellmoo suffers from a common MUDflaw:Badmins
there sometimes referred to in HM, imagine being the plaything for
someone who can type a few words and shoot you into outer space. Worse
yet is the PvP system, no place is 100% safe and its very common to be
mowed down by someone that was simply bored or wanted to test out
there new overpowered exploit weapon on your fragile skull.(Probably
ruining hours of real life time.) Once you lose your Newbie tag it
gets worse ten fold, especially on the weekends when a full 10-15
players of the 30-40 online are devout griefers in the 'COPS' corp.

There are a few rules in place, but mostly only the ones concerning
ALTs are enforced, and spamming. Due to a remarkable number of legally
blind people playing hellmoo(Not kidding, they use screenreaders)
spamming in combat can get you perma banned, and anyone involved in
the fight (IE few guys are jumping one, one of the attackers spams)
can also be temp banned. (Worth noting however that the one case of
this iv heard of, involved a COPS player being attacked so it may
simply be badmin favoritism at work)

There newbie system is pretty deplorable, though it does offer some
shelter: when you first make a character, your eventually given the
option to join the newbie corp which has a HQ that has built in
crafting stations, a place you can safely log out, a donation bin and
important items can spawn in the cabinets around the HQ. (Including
medical kits, 'cocoons' which can save your gear if you die, and
ropes for climbing.) N-tags also provide there own form of defense:
killing a n-tag more than once in a short interval with out
provocation is a rule violation and some higher players will avenge
n-tags......unless COPScorp is involved, then they are generally given
a off handed comment about avoiding said COPS member in the future.

Most public areas have cameras that will alert local authorities when
someone kills someone else in view of them, however they will never
get there in time to save you or even trouble your attacker. If they
die after getting 'stars'(flagged by law enforcement, more or less.)
they can go to prison for a time, which can be a hassle but most
higher players will not be terrible troubled by this threat.

In closing: Hellmoo has great potential, but is unlikely to ever
reach its full potential as a MUD powerhouse......between its badmins
and griefcore playerbase its capacity to grow is severely hampered to
the point that most new players will not stay once they are over the
initial fun, some may cling in hopes of keeping the good times rolling
but invariably someone will beat them into a pulp and turn Hellmoo
into Lamemoo.

I can say up to that point, you'll probably have a blast.
PARTING WARNING: Hellmoo takes 'mature theme' to a whole new level,
to the point that some of the players actually believe the game has
'pedophilia roots' (Because hellmoo uses a age system, you get older
with time/deaths/mutations, but start out at the age of 13 fully
capable of uh reproductive activities.) So the faint of heart should
look elsewhere, while those that enjoy crude humor will never get over
throwing body parts into adjacent rooms.

You'll have a blast. Until an admin freaks out and IP bans you over
nothing.

Comment posted on Fri Mar 11 19:15:49 2011 by Senthis:

This review is 100% accurate, the game is amazing. For the first week
or so I played I was PKed every day or two. I had read up and knew not
to say anything about it, luckily. I was immersed and couldn't stop
playing. Then the griefing hits, and it gets bad, fast. Unfortunately
there is nothing you can do about it either. I watched a few groups
crumble who had gotten strong enough to try to fight the griefing COPS
corp. Most quit, the rest took the other way, if you can't beat em
join em. It's a pity because the game itself was unbelievably well
made, especially considering the content. I do recommend giving it a
shot though, before it gets too much its a great game.. Soon hopefully
someone will make a close version of it and have a better player base.
I'll be hard pressed to find a game as good.

Review posted by Luwinkle

Posted on Thu Feb 10 22:23:22 2011 / 0 comments

Display Review

I've played many MUDs over the past 12 years and Hell was one of
the more interesting.

I put off playing Hell for a while because I never tried a MOO
before. But it has guns and other such stuff I like so I figured I'd
give it a shot. When you first make your character (after requesting a
temporary password that is sent to your e-mail) you start out as an
orphan. Ten years old, low stats, no skills, no equipment, etc. About
five minutes after emerging from the 'orphan hole' I was promptly
grabbed by a player and raped(and I mean actual rape). I should have
left right then and there, but I didn't. And oh yeah, to become a
non-orphan you have to 'grow up'. This involves finding the museum
basement (if you don't get raped/killed a few times in the meantime)
and killing or 'performing oral services' on an NPC to be allowed to
the room where you can start actually creating a character.

That's one thing you should know about Hell..it's a VERY
'adult-themed' world. However, as I later found out, the 'MUST BE
EIGHTEEN OR OVER' rule isn't enforced, ever. One of the
somewhat-sane(very few of those) admins flat out told me that,
personally. That's right..minors are subjected to rampant drug use,
alcoholism, rape, pedophilia, necrophilia, bestiality, etc. etc. Hell
has all that and much, much more.

After a few weeks of trying to get stronger but constantly being
ganged up on and all of my stuff stolen (and my apartment robbed) I
got tired of actually trying to PLAY Hell and decided to just hang
around in my apartment and talk to some of the very few decent people
on there. You see Hell is populated by Somethingawful goons and 4chan
addicts. And the result is exactly as you'd expect. There are a few
good people on there, but they are few and far between and they
don't last long (every single one of the people I used to talk to no
longer play). The majority of the people are 'griefers' which are
pretty much kids that were picked on too much in high school and feel
the need to try to get back at society by being jerks on the internet.
Sometimes it can be funny, but most of the time it isn't. A few days
ago I made a new character to try to 'get back into' Hell. It lasted
about an hour or two before I was again overly bored and didn't feel
like doing jack-all but sitting in my apartment and talking over the
various nets.

Now, with the normal clientele Hell attracts there are quite a bit of
immature arguments and jokes slung around. However, you better make
sure you know who is listening in and who the joke is aimed toward.
Today one of the head Wizards (which outrank admins) made yet another
controversial decision and the entire place went into an uproar. In
the newbie corporation (don't refer corporations as a guild/clan
unless you want to die..a lot) we were jokingly brainstorming ways
to 'deal with the problem'. I made a joke about molotov
cocktails(tame by Hell standards), someone else made a joke about
killing the admin in his sleep. Now I was gone for a few hours but
during those few hours that convo was leaked and I was falsely accused
for the sleep-killing bit. I came back on to everyone wanting me dead
and to an overly emotional/hysterical (not in a funny sense) admin. I
tried to speak with that admin to calmly and maturely explain that
what I said was merely a joke and that I didn't say the death-threat.
The only response I got was 'shut the *expletive* up' and all of my
characters were promptly banned over a false accusation by a
abusive/emotionally disturbed admin. Thus ends my adventures in Hell.

But before I end this I shall talk about the admins/wizards a little
bit. Most of them are good, however, there are quite a few
knee-jerking overly-emotional (read: EMO) types that are slowly
dooming the game. One of the head admins himself (the one in question
in the paragraph above) had said that he didn't care about new
players since most of them leave within 6 months anyway. Which is
proven in his, and other admins', latest decisions..which are turning
gameplay, especially for new players, into a chore instead of a fun
activity. The numbers of players are steadily dropping and if Hell
stays on this current path it probably won't be around too much
longer. Which really is a shame since it's a game with quite a bit
of potential. But just like most games that have the best potential
these days they are ruined by leadership that care nothing about the
players. Not to mention the knee-jerk reactions when it comes to
'balance' or when suddenly deeming something against the rules even
though it didn't say anything about it in the rule help file. Once
something is deemed 'overpowered' they gank it into uselessness.

Now when the denizens of Hell find out about this review I'll likely
be insulted, threatened, etc. behind my back. As has happened with
previous Hell reviews. I'll also probably be permanently banned if
I'm not already. It is with this that I can not recommend this game
to anyone. That is..unless you frequent Somethingawful's forums
and/or 4chan and were repeatedly picked on in school.

I wasn't a big fan of MUDs until I found out about Hell moo. It has
more content than many of the ones I tried before it and the world
feels living and very ambient. There's always something to do,
somewhere to go and I like the submersion of the world to the point
I'm surprised more of the players aren't actually roleplayers.

Needless to say I quit WoW for this one.

Pros:
-Lots of mutations, skills and items to use.
-World is large with lots of places of interest for you to visit.

-Plenty of players active at any given time of day and 'newbie
corporation' is there to help you get started.

-Combat and quests are well designed and entertaining.

-Flying superman style, piloting airplanes, riding motorbikes,
sailing with ships and even skateboarding around makes traveling the
world fun.

Pros - a lot of mutations, weapons, armours to choose from while
playing. Interesting npcs to interact with to some degree. Some fun
places to explore lots of easter eggs from other post apoc
games/words. That's really about it.

Cons - only a small amount of mutations, weapons, armours are worth
getting. When you get them several people will be along shortly to
kill you and take it, and wait for you to come back to your corpse to
get anything they didn't take to kill you again, and again and track
you to your house and pick open your door to kill you again and take
everything in your house too.

This game is simply infested with a class of players whos only
purpose is to harrase and grief other players off the game and make
them miserable. The rules about griefing, harrasing are largely
ignored as for the most part its the player alts of admins doing it or
their friends to the point its entirely just pointless to try and play
just because of lack of any kind of rules and the general player base.

I've got to agree to some extent with this review. I think that
HellMOO's code is some of the best I've ever seen, and the NPC
and area designs are smart, funny, and enjoyable. The other players,
though, many of whom are Something Awful goons, are pretty much the
exact opposite of funny, smart, and enjoyable. Think 'Frat Boys Run
Amok' (and often having entirely too good a time with the game's
simulated mano-a-mano sex, hur hur hur), and you've got the tone of
the player base.

Unless you like hanging around with aggressively obnoxious and
childish jerks, avoid this game.

Review posted by Laura

Posted on Sun Aug 22 22:26:03 2010 / 1 comment

Display Review

There are a lot of things that can be said for Hell, but more to be
said against.

The world is interesting and actually quite fun to explore. The XP
awards make for some entertaining situations. You can kill sewer
monsters, detonate a small nuclear device in someone's house, or just
get doped out of your mind and trip out.

Sadly, what this place has in world and setting is overshadowed by
uncaring admins (who have been known to kill players just for fun), a
large group of 'oldbies' who take delight in making the experience
unpleasant for anyone newer that cannot defend themselves, and
countless 'balancing' tweaks that do little more than to widen the
power gap between the older players and the new, ensuring that unless
you manage to find some other older players to protect you, you will
be hounded and stolen from with impunity.

In short; it's a wonderful concept, but the execution needs a lot of
work. Don't be surprised if you find yourself wanting to quit within
a week.

This review seems to have been written by someone who was easily
aggrieved and gave up. Don't listen to them. Hell is actually a great
game.

Review posted by Mark

Posted on Tue Jul 25 21:24:02 2006 / 0 comments

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Yep, Hell is still here, and still all the last reviewer said. I
want to stress a few things, though.

- The thinking behind this game is really consistent and
sophisticated. No matter how nasty, ugly, and often funny it
is, it still all makes some sense.

- The game remains unpredictable. You never know if the loot
you found in A will be there again, and you're not sure how
mob X will respond to you this time. The more you interact
with the game, the deeper it seems to get.

- I still do 'serious' RP games... but playing on Hell has
actually loosened me up as a player.

This is not a good place if you really like romance and agnst,
but it's the perfect place if you just want to say 'Forget it'
and scrap to survive in a world that is immersive and wild,
parodic and disturbingly real.

HellMOO is unique to say the least. Your character's actions as a
child (before the world goes kaplooey) determine his starting skills
as an adult. Your charrie steps out into a city where Social Darwinism
is king and where your grandfather's trash is everyone's treasure!

All the post-apoc cliches are there: cannibal mutants, brain-eating
zombies and giant vermin, but underneath is a satirical stab at 21st
century life. Leave your Political Correctness behind here!

The staff is friendly and enthusiastic! They've worked on this MOO
for years, and while it's still in beta it's VERY playable. It's
entertaining for hack-and-slashers and explorers alike. All they're
missing now are PLAYERS! So why don't you stop by to participate in a
unique RP environment?